William and Mary? Forum

[jmilllz]

I am very content to stay within the VA/Mid-Atlantic area. Another school is giving me 30k per year, William and Mary is giving me 8k for the first year which will then be pro-rated if I receive in-state tuition for the second and third years. I'm estimating William and Mary will end up being at least 50k more expensive when all is said and done. Is a degree from W&M worth the extra upfront cost? Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

[jmilllz]

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[ILoveYou]

It's tough to say either of those are good options. I know this isn't what you want to hear, but the best option for you would be to retake/reapply next cycle. That's just too much debt for either of those schools. Richmond gives you slightly better than a 50/50 shot at ever becoming an attorney. William & Mary is significantly better, but your options coming out of there at median would leave you in probably a decade or more of debt slavery if you have to take on $130k+ in loans.

[Winston1984]

Neither, but def not William and Mary at that cost.

[MarkfromWI]

-Your general career goals
Interested in a number of areas: constitutional law, intellectual property, litigation

That's great that Con Law interests you, but truth be told, there really aren't jobs in constitutional law unless you 1) go to Yale and become a ConLaw professor, or 2) Went to Harvard in the '70's. It just isn't really a viable career path.

As for intellectual property, do you have a STEM undergrad degree? Without one, you can't sit for the patent bar which will foreclose you from a good amount of IP jobs. You could still do patent lit, but from what I've heard even that's tough to break into for a non-STEM. Again, it's great that these areas of law interest you, but whether or not it is a viable/realistic career path for you should be a bigger concern.

Richmond isn't terrible if your goals are modest - meaning you'd be content working at a small firm taking anything that walks through the door or working in local government - but even then the debt you'd be taking on is not insignificant. I think a retake is the right way to go.

[chuckbass]

Given that you're from DE I'd think you'd also have a harder time landing a job in VA from these schools, and these aren't really going to carry you to MD/PA or anything.

[jmilllz]

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[jmilllz]

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[ILoveYou]

It's tough to say either of those are good options. I know this isn't what you want to hear, but the best option for you would be to retake/reapply next cycle. That's just too much debt for either of those schools. Richmond gives you slightly better than a 50/50 shot at ever becoming an attorney. William & Mary is significantly better, but your options coming out of there at median would leave you in probably a decade or more of debt slavery if you have to take on $130k+ in loans.

Coming out at median is definitely something I'm concerned about with W&M. Should this consideration outweigh the prestige difference of the two schools?

Neither of those schools are prestigious to speak of, so you shouldn't consider that at all. All you should be thinking about is:
1.) What kind of law job do I want?
2.) Can I reasonably expect to obtain that job from W&M? Richmond?
3.) Will that job pay well enough to service my debt?
4.) Given the dismal employment prospects for grads of these two schools, what if I don't get the job I want? Will whatever job I can get pay well enough to service my debt?

would a W&M degree end up earning me more over the long term than a Richmond degree?

Most likely. But enough more to make it worth the difference in debt? Very much harder to determine.